Brain & Belief: An Exploration of the Human Soul

by John J. McGraw

From its beginnings in prehistoric religion to its central importance in Western faith traditions, the soul has been a constant source of fascination and speculation. Brain & Belief seeks to understand mankind's obsession with life, death, and the afterlife. Exploring the latest insights from neuroscience, psychopharmacology, and existential psychology, McGraw exhaustively researches the various takes on the human soul and considers the meaning of the soul in a postmodern world. The ambitious scope of the book is balanced by a deeply personal voice whose sympathy for both science and religion is resonant.

Genres: Psychology, Science, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Skepticism

416 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

John J. McGraw was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1974. McGraw studied at Cascia Hall Preparatory School, Phillips Exeter Academy, Stanford University, and the University of California, San Diego. McGraw received a B.A. in Psychology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies from Stanford University, and is in pursuit of a PhD in Anthropology and Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego. In Brain & Belief: An Exploration of the Human Soul, McGraw incorporates experiences from his work in psychiatric hospitals, medical research, and his extensive studies in religion and philosophy. This work is heavily influence by Ernest Becker, Weston LaBarre, Ashley Montagu, and Richard Evans Schultes. He is currently performing anthropological fieldwork in Guatemala.

Reviews

[Lena]

Of the various books I have read discussing the problem of religion in modern society, Brain and Belief is likely to be the most accessible to those who find themselves moving away from a previously cherished belief system. The author's confessed experience as a former believer himself lends his arguments a level of compassion and understanding for the spiritual experience that those who have never felt the stirrings of religion seem to lack.

McGraw's book is divided into three main sections. In the first, the author provides a wide-angle overview of the concept of soul. He traces the history of the soul from its origins in animism/shamanism through ancient Greece and into Christianity. I have little background in religious history, so this section gave me a much better understanding of the origins and development of the kind of dualistic thinking required to sustain belief in the idea of a soul.

In the second section, McGraw uses findings from modern neuroscience to chip away at the belief that a soul can exist separate from the physical matter of the brain. An extensive section on brain mechanics and a discussion of how diseases such as Alzheimer’s can rob a person of any familiar sense of self serves to effectively undermine the idea that there is a separate soul which remains immune to the onslaughts of the physical plane.

McGraw spends a lot of time in this section detailing the effects of numerous hallucinogenic drugs on the brain. His discussion of the use of psychotropic plants in religion was particularly fascinating to me. I had no idea that there are those who believe the origins of Hinduism grew from the roots of a rare psychedelic mushroom (though, now that I think about it, that does seem to make an awful lot of sense.) His survey of psychotropic plant use from shamanism to Delphi makes clear that hallucinogens have played a major part in the development of human religious ideas.

What I found most effective about this section was that it speaks directly to what other critics of religion have referred to as “the argument for personal experience.” Since I participated in a tradition where transcendent moments of euphoria and bliss were cited as proof of the existence of a spiritual plane, reading a deconstruction of how these states are created in the brain was particularly enlightening. McGraw makes an effective argument that—as powerful as these states may be—they can be entirely explained by our own neurochemistry and cannot be reliably used to argue for the existence of alternate dimensions outside of our own heads.

In the third section of the book, McGraw discusses the issues that need to be faced in the process of moving away from false but comforting ideas of religion towards a more mature understanding of the world and our very limited place in it. McGraw excels here in his discussion of the cognitive biases that make this process difficult; in contrast to others who condescend to religious adherents as simply stupid, McGraw carefully explains how genuinely difficult our brains have made it to change long-held beliefs. His discussion of studies done on how doomsday cults react to the repeated failure of doomsday to arrive will be particularly interesting to students of cultic issues.

Though I disagree with his heavy reliance on the ideas of Freud to explain why we are so prone to believing in an all-powerful god, I think McGraw is correct that no real progress can be made until human beings are willing to let go of the self-important idea that we will live forever and face the reality of our own imminent death. As unpalatable as this idea may be for some, McGraw is kind enough not to leave the reader empty-handed. A brief discussion of the philosophies taught by Buddha, Epicurus and the Stoics provides several alternative ways of relating to the challenges of life that do not require the fierce denial of our material reality.

[Meen]

Wow, I enjoyed this one very much, but I will have a hard time describing it. The subtitle "exploration" is appropriate because the book examines the notion of immortality from the perspectives of several different disciplines including neuroscience, anthropology, philosophy and pyschology.

The extensiveness of the drug section was a bit much, but I get the point he was trying to make--our perceptions (of self and of the world) are chemical reactions in the brain. The fact that external chemicals alter our perceptions (and our personalities) points to the material basis of the self (and the "soul"). In fact, I found myself wishing I had had this book when I first got clean and sober b/c the material approach works so much better for me than framing alcoholism/addiction as a "spiritual disease."

I appreciated the broad overview of human religious behavior from a non-sociological perspective (which I also love, btw, but it's nice to read outside one's primary discipline), and this book illuminated some concepts to which I had not been exposed--like neoteny and contingency and our pathological fear of it and especially of the ultimate contingency, death--and which I now want to learn more about. (And I'm about to add a bunch of books from his references to my to-read shelf!)

Beyond enjoying the subject matter, I also just enjoyed reading this accessible book (though it wasn't very well edited--lots of typos). (And it is not a small thing that the author makes an effort to refer to humans with the female pronoun more often than not. Thank you, Mr. McGraw! It really does make a difference!) McGraw is very personable and at times quite funny, and even though he very obviously thinks (and effectively argues) that humans must mature in our psychological/philosophical interpretations of the world and accept our ultimate fate (death with nothing beyond it), he also expresses compassion for believers and their deep psychological need for the benzodiazepine of belief in immortality and realizes that the security blanket can't just be yanked away. He doesn't provide any recommendations for how to do it softly and sweetly, but he does offer several "mature philosophies" as alternatives [Buddhism (yay!), Epicureanism, and Stoicism].

[tim]

As a book, Brain & Belief leaves much to be desired--especially with regards to the writing style and editing. I struggled throughout with the author's lack of imagination, poorly constructed analogies, blind confidence in Prozac, and overall smug tone. However, with that said, I was thoroughly challenged by John McGraw's hypothesis that the human soul is a myth.

McGraw quickly covers the notion of the human soul as it is understood through western philosophy and religion. He then examines the nature of the soul viewed from the perspective of science--that all thoughts, emotions, and perceptions of the individual self have their neuro-physical correlations.

For me, one of the most challenging and upsetting implications of McGraw's theory, is the improbability of an after life. I immediately reacted to this idea thinking it preposterous. But after considering his arguments, that the human soul is based in and dependent on the physical human brain, how could it survive the death of the body? In what form would I exist in the after life if I no longer have my physical body which endured all the challenges of mortal life--the challenges which sculpted my individual self into the person I am? If the soul is immaterial, where would it exist after death and in what form would I perceive myself--as a human? at what age? would I have retain my reproductive parts? for what reason?

Even though I don't think death is as cut and dry as McGraw makes it out to be (it is, after all, the BIG WHO KNOWS), his observations about the material basis of the soul have challenged my own conceptions of death. More importantly, McGraw brings attention to the fact that life is not to be squandered. That we should not live recklessly for tomorrow, hoping to gain access into heaven after death--all the while trashing the delicate, life-sustaining capabilities of our planet on our way. We must live every moment, in the moment, as though this is the only life we will ever have (whatever one believes)--or risk eternal planetary extinction. For how could there be an after life, if there is no life to begin with?

[Ryan]

I liked this book very much. It is scholarly yet succinct. McGraw gives a cogent and interesting history of the soul in just 113 pages. Part two describes what scientists have discovered about the brain and how chemicals and other things impact it. And finally, part three (my favorite section and the one that I’ve already reread), attempts to make sense of the first two sections, attempts to find a world view that makes sense in the 21st century I majored in philosophy in college mainly because of my feelings of uncertainty and confusion about the soul/mind/body issue. I hadn’t really revisited the problem since I graduated college, until I read McGraw’s book. His book accurately captures and explains the psychological human desire for an explanation that makes of death less final. He then captures why this desire can’t be fulfilled. The book is written in an engaging style and is also humorous, which is a nice change of pace for a book in this genre. Other books in this vain often read like a funeral dirge sounds.

I think the book is also especially important for those of us who do not subscribe to an organized religion and who are trying to assimilate all the discoveries that science has made over the past 100 or 200 years. Personally, I’m looking for meaning and a meaningful life without any notion of a personal God, and this book gave me quite a bit of hope. It is realistic about the human condition, but never, for even a page, resorts to despair. I recommend this book for anyone an open mind who is seeking answers.

[Hussain Tariq]

Read the history of soul part i would say it's pretty interesting

[Lee Harmon]

A worthwhile book, comprehensive in its treatment of the evolution of belief in the soul, and why we believe. McGraw possesses degrees in psychology, philosophy and religious studies, and he brings the three together in his writing … and in the wonderfully macabre cover of his book.

The three parts to the book are:

[1] A History of the Soul, in which McGraw leads us from our prehistoric beginnings of belief, through Shamanism, ancient Egypt, Judaism, and the famed philosopher Plato, into the development of Christianity.

[2] Part II, The Soul Matter, digs into the brain and its anatomy, the puzzle of consciousness, the effects of hallucinogens and other drugs, and illnesses such as depression.

[3] Part III, titled “Giving up the Ghost” introduces “the beautiful lie,” and attempts to carefully weigh what is gained and what is lost by perpetuating a belief in the afterlife.

I read this book several years ago, and I’m sure there are a number of other reviews out there to tell you about it, so I’d rather just quote a paragraph from part three that resonated strongly with me:

“The theologians’ heaven—singing, majesty, contemplation of God’s beauty—implies a total transformation of personhood and its context. This existence ceases to be a personal one at all and may be considered an Easter dissolution of self into the Godhead. Once everyone ceases to do personal things and engages in a standard universal, a fawning submission before ineffable beauty, one sacrifices one’s personality. At such a stage friend and lover, brother and son, all disappear. Hunger and admiration, play and sex, all dissolve into the singular experience—the singularly inhuman experience—of God worship. Every depiction of an existence worth living for disappears with the personality. Such an impersonal existence could be immortal but the person would have ceased to exist at death as surely as if he were simply mortal.” (p. 329)